Rocket lands safely after launch

For the first time in history the first stage of a carrier rocket system successfully landed a few minutes after being launched. This means a great step towards the goal of rocket systems to be refurbished and reused. In the rocket engines FAULHABER Drive Systems played a major role.

The US company SpaceX completed an historic vertical landing of its Falcon 9 rocket after being launched a few minutes before — the first time such a feat had been achieved. The rocket had been launched at 8:29 p.m. (local time) from Cape Canaveral in Florida to release 11 satellites in low earth orbit. The Falcon 9 reached a height of 200 kilometers above ground before it turned back. According to the flight schedule the first rocket stage separated and floated back to earth where it landed vertically around 10 minutes after the launch.

Amid tightening budgets, space agencies are increasingly looking to the commercial space sector to provide the launch vehicles of the future. Companies like SpaceX now offer highly reliable and economically viable launch vehicles which can send a large variety of payloads into Earth orbit. One way to control cost is by optimizing fuel burned during launch to minimize waste. A specially developed fuel-trim valve guarantees optimum performance in this situation. It is driven by robust and reliable servomotors made by FAULHABER.